Read A Bride For The Sheikh for Free Online Page B

to know that she was exceptionally beautiful and that there was an indescribable chemistry between them, a type of bond that was beyond mere physical attraction.
    As the sheikh drove to his father’s palace, he thought about how he would go in search of Angelina as soon as his meeting with his father was over. He would first stop in the gold souk , the market, and buy her armfuls of lavish jewellery, which he would give to her as her bride price. Even if her parents were reasonably rich, he would make her father an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Then he would present Angelina to his father and begin the wedding preparations.
    With his head full of dreams of his life with Angelina, Rashid entered his father’s presence with a reasonable sense of confidence. He bowed low and greeted the sultan with the customary wishes for a long and successful life, blessed with good health and many sons.
    “Don’t wish me any more sons. They give me nothing but trouble!” the sultan boomed.
    The smile fell from Rashid’s face. This was obviously not one of his father’s better days. “I would never do anything to disrespect you, Your Majesty.” Rashid bowed low again.
    “You disrespect me when you disrespect our security division.”
    “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you are referring to.” However, Rashid had a reasonable idea what his father was angry about, but he thought he’d play innocent until he was sure.
    “You’ve had my head of security and half his best men up all day and all night investigating an engineer and his family. They’ve even called in International Security! Could you please tell me what’s going on?”
    Rashid decided the best plan was to come clean about what he’d been up to. “I was investigating the suitability of a woman I met at our party the other night.”
    “The security division does not exist as some form of dating agency! They are here to prevent serious crimes against the state: terrorism, uprisings, political protests, that sort of thing. They’re not here to help you find a girlfriend! That is not their job.”
    Rashid hadn’t seen his father this angry since he’d been caught riding the sultan’s favourite racehorse without permission when he was seventeen. However, he decided to press his point. “But Your Majesty, this isn’t just any girlfriend; this is my future wife. I had to check if she was suitable enough to marry into the royal family. You yourself ran checks on your own wife not so long ago, if you’ll forgive my allusion to the matter.”
    “That was to see whether she was having an affair and that really is a matter of state security. If your mother had a son by another man, that would put him in line to the throne, this throne.” The sultan banged the arm of the chair to make his point, even though it wasn’t an actual throne, but a large armchair covered in blue silk. “And you don’t need to look for a wife. I’ve already told you, I’ve found you a suitable wife—Chrystal Longhorn.”
    Rashid’s stomach churned at the thought of marrying Chrystal. “But you promised that I could look for a foreign bride myself.”
    “Well, you better hurry up. You only have just over a week left and I absolutely forbid you to waste any more of security’s time over the matter.”
    “You have my promise, Father.” It was an easy promise to make. Rashid already had all the information he needed. “Just one last thing, if I may.” Rashid gave his father his most winning smile. “Given how hard your security division works and given what an excellent job they do, I was wondering if they weren’t due a pay rise, maybe ten per cent and perhaps a large bonus for the head of security, say twenty thousand dollars?”
    The sultan laughed. “You’ve always been the kindest and most generous of my sons and because I can assume that you’ve already promised them this, I will honour your promise. However, in return, you must honour yours and leave security